Payors and patients have long counted on Caremark for a broad range of services, whether it's managing their pharmacy benefits, filling prescriptions by mail, or offering the industry's deepest clinical capabilities. A leader in specialty pharmacy, Caremark pioneered this category more than 25 years ago. Through our Accordant business, we offer the most extensive health management programs in the industry. We treat 27 separate chronic disease states, including diabetes, hemophilia, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Caremark's strengths in analytics help us develop effective cost-control strategies for Fortune 1000 employers, health plans, and other PBM clients. Our strong service culture is reflected in the latest J.D. Power and Associates Retail Pharmacy Satisfaction Study. Caremark ranked highest in customer satisfaction among 1 1 mail order pharmacy service providers. In 2008, the ExtraCare Health card we are introducing for PBM clients will provide beneficial health promotions for their plan members.
The 23,000 pharmacists and MinuteClinic practitioners in our retail stores will help us take many of our offerings to the next level by getting closer to the patient. Take the $33 billion - and growing - specialty market. In addition to filling prescriptions at our 20 specialty mail order facilities, we can offer patients something no other PBM can: a network of 56 retail specialty pharmacies where they can consult with one of our highly trained pharmacists on a face-to-face basis. Personal interaction of this kind helps improve compliance, one of the keys to lowering costs for payors and improving patient health.